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Running External IP

To run External IP, simply double click on the ExternalIP.exe in the application folder that was created when it was installed/extracted. Or, if you used the installer, you can run it from the start button.

Using External IP

Once External IP is running, you will see a small icon () in the system tray. This is the entire interface for External IP.

When you click on the system tray icon, a menu system will appear.

This menu controls the basic functions of External IP. The three main menu items, Check IP Address Now, Display IP Address, and Exit, all execute specific tasks for External IP.

• Check IP Address Now - immediately checks to see if the external IP address has changed. It does not wait for the next check cycle and it resets the check cycle.
• Display IP Address - displays the IP address that was retrieved during the last check.
• Exit - exits External IP.

There are also two submenus, Manage Application and Daily Cup of Tech. When you click on one of these items, you are presented with another submenu with further options.

Manage Applications Submenu

These options basically give you the ability to edit how External IP functions.

• Edit Configuration - Opens up ExternalIP.ini in notepad so that you can make modifications.
• Reload Configuration - Reloads the ExternalIP.ini file. Must be run before any changes take effect.
• Display Log File - Opens up the active log file in notepad.

Daily Cup of Tech Submenu

These menu items give you the ability to connect back to Daily Cup of Tech to obtain further information.

• Website - the Daily Cup of Tech website.
• Online Help - this webpage that provides all of the documentation for External IP.
• Release the Code - information on the Daily Cup of Tech Release the Code program.

Running as a Portable Application

External IP is written to work from any removable media that is read/write enabled. This means that you can use a USB drive or even a floppy drive and run it from that location without installing it. The only thing that you need to do to ensure that you do not leave any traces of External IP when you are finished is to ensure that you do not have External IP set to run at log on.

You can set this by editing the ExternalIP.ini file and making sure that you have RunAtLogOn=False under the General section. This will prevent External IP from reading and writing to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key. All other files and settings are stored in the application folder.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/external-ip-address/trackback/

12 Responses to “DCoT Apps: External IP Address”

1. Ciego Says:
   April 10th, 2007 at 10:53 am

   Nice … I just had this happen to me last week (after having the same ip for about 7 months) and I couldn’t access my server from work when I needed to.

2. Michael Says:
   April 10th, 2007 at 11:13 am

   Good work, very handy! I wonder if you would consider sharing your code (sorry, don’t know if you have any policy against such)? This is a nice little piece of functionality, and I could see some other potential uses for it. Thanks.

3. Tim Fehlman Says:
   April 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am

   Michael,

   You are not the first person to ask about source code. I will be making an announcement about this in the near future. Please keep your eye on DCoT for further information.

   Tim

4. Sarge Says:
   April 10th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

   Thanks Tim,

   I have been looking for a solution such as this for a bit. I sometimes have need to access files while on the road and I can’t wait to try this.

5. Tim Fehlman Says:
   April 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

   Sir, yes, Sir!

   Glad to be of service, Sir! If you find it handy, feel free to use the Tip Jar, Sir!

   P.S. If you haven’t guessed, I visited your blog! Now if I only knew how to salute with an emoticon!

   Tim

6. Steve W Says:
   April 11th, 2007 at 5:08 am

   I’ve used ZoneEdit and DynDNS to access my home network via registered domain names and free subdomains with great success over the years. No need to keep track of my dynamic IP address

7. Fred W Says:
   April 25th, 2007 at 4:02 pm

   Great little app, very handy.

   For me, though, it is ignoring the “UseMail=False” in the .ini file, and tries to contact “SMTPServer=smtp.myisp.com” anyway. FTP function works PERFECTLY.

   Otherwise, thanks for a great utility, and blog!

8. Dave Says:
   May 6th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

   Good idea!

   Just wanted to point out that “UseFTP=False” does not appear to bypass the FTP portion of the program - resulting in an error message (as expected since I have not changed the default FTP parameters in the configuration file.

9. Tim Fehlman Says:
   May 6th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

   It looks like there are a couple of bugs that I need to look at. Thanks, Fred and Dave. I’ll get on that as soon as I get some time.

   Tim

10. Andy Says:
    February 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Do you, by chance, have something similar to use on a Linux platform?

    Thanks!
    Andy

11. don Says:
    April 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Hello\

    I new to this and can not seem to get it working with gmail account does any one have a sample application

12. Mike Says:
    April 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    Has a solution been found for the program not recognizing “False” for FTP and Mail settings? Hint hint nudge nudge…

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